Public mpanies preparing to mply with the mandate to tag their financials in XBRL may have their work cut out for them initially, but it gets easier the send time around, acrding to recent survey of more than 200 public mpany executives.

An SEC rule that took effect last year already requires the largest 500 U.S. public mpanies to file their financial statements tagged in XBRL. Another 1,200 large filers must start mplying with the mandate for their periodic reports filed after June 15, 2010, and all other domestic and foreign registrants will follow suit next year.

In a joint survey by XBRL U.S. and the American Institute of Certified Public Acuntants, the majority of executives polled (57 percent) said the prep took more than 120 hours, when factoring in all of the legwork for their first submission, including getting cated about XBRL and the Securities and Exchange mission mandate, choosing a vendor or software, etc.

However, respondents reported that prep time for those XBRL submissions decreased dramatically after the first filing. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of those that have already filed a send time around said it took less than 40 hours. Most of those polled (45 percent) said it was “significantly easier” to prepare and submit the XBRL documents the send time, and another 27 percent said it was “somewhat easier.”

Most respondents from anizations that have already submitted XBRL-formatted financial statements say their firms have outsourced at least part of the process, acrding to the survey results. Thirty-nine percent said their mpany created and submitted XBRL files using internal staff and a software tool; 31 percent outsourced the entire process, including mapping, tagging, instance document creation. and submission, to a third-party service provider, while 16 percent did the mapping internally, but outsourced the tagging, instance document creation. and submission. Another 8 percent said their mpany created and submitted XBRL files using hired nsultants/advisers and a software tool and 6 percent said the mpany created/submitted XBRL files using internal staff and a third party developed taxonomy and software.

Among those respondents who haven’t yet submitted XBRL-tagged financials, more than half (56 percent) say their mpany plans to outsource it to a service provider. Roughly a quarter (24 percent) plan to do the XBRL in-house, while the remaining 20 percent weren’t sure.

Those who’ve already done XBRL tagging most mmonly cited detailed footnote tagging (21 percent) as their major ncern. Other worries included: increasing efficiencies in preparation and submission (14 percent), ongoing st and difficulty of XBRL creation and submission (12 percent), risk/liability for having the same financials available to the public in two different formats (8 percent); how to better define and ntrol the process (7 percent), and developments regarding auditors’ responsibility for XBRL formatted financial statements and not being able to use a grace period in subsequent filings, each cited by 5 percent of those polled.

Meanwhile, new filers most often cited insufficient resources as their biggest ncern (35 percent), followed by a need to get cated (28 percent), the st/benefit proposition (14 percent), and the availability of help and support services (11 percent).